Sweeter than honey, tougher than nails.: Let's go to Rio de Janeiro

After almost 10 months, I am here to tell you about our wonderful vacation to Rio de Janeiro and Recife Brazil, has it been this long?? WOW, time flies by.

Downtown Anchorage, AK

Let me start from the beginning, my husband, Andy, works for an engineering firm as a Land Surveyor here in Anchorage AK, and because of that he is always gone working throughout the state. For over 2 years Andy has been working at a God awful place named Red Dog Mine, located in the North West Arctic Alaska. Usually he works a schedule of 3 weeks on working 12 hour a day without having a day off and 2 weeks off on R and R, which adds up to a total of 9 months out of the house and 3 months at home during a full year; as you can see it does not leave enough time for him to pamper and to spoil me; let me be brutally honest, I detest that. Last year when he came back home from one of his excursions in the Arctic to spend Thanksgiving with our daughter, Ana Carolina, and I, he told me that he was taking all of us, for a nice 40 day vacation in Brazil, my country of birth; wow, I could not believe in what I was hearing, how much better could it be? The only really bad thing was that I had to leave behind my 3 grand dogs: Pikachu a Pika Pom, Shelby a Shih Tzu, and Oscar a mixture of Shih Tzu and Lhasa Apso; I was devastated and it took all the strength I had to leave the house on the day of our trip, Andy had to peel me off them and I left crying I even told the cab driver to turn around and take me back home I had decided that I was not going to travel anymore, but at the end I went.

We decided that we were going to stay for 8 days in Orlando, FL, his family lives there and 32 days in Brazil where my family lives, so we did it.

We arrived at Tom Jobim Airport in Rio de Janeiro, on the 6th of December at 11 am; what we did not know was what was awaiting us there: a sweltering heat wave right from the start.

We retrieved our luggage and walked outside to catch a cab and then right at that moment I realized that I was going to pass out from the heat. What me? The woman that was reared in front of the beach? The one that was called Beach Rat? No, that could not be happening but, then I realized that I had just left Anchorage in the whim of the winter; when we left home it was extremely cold, the temperature was -5 F and when we arrived in Rio de Janeiro it was an overcast and humid 85 F, do you get the picture? Miserable 90 F of difference, we thought we were going to die, but then we decided that we were not going to let the heat destroy our vacation.

When we arrived at the hotel in Copacabana Beach my parents were already awaiting us downstairs, what a touching encounter it was to see my parents after 3 years of long separation; between laughs and tears, kisses and hugs, we took our luggage upstairs and decided to go exploring the city.

We went to Copacabana beach and walked the Calcadao de Copacabana, beach board walk, but note that the boardwalk is made of Portuguese stones and not made out of wood like here in the States, unique is the word; beautiful is the least I can say to describe this tropical city located in the Southern Hemisphere. I thought to myself: Self, God must love you a lot to give you the opportunity to see all of this beauty, Rio de Janeiro is the most beautiful city in the world and you are here to witness that.

Overlooking Rio de Janeiro, BZ

That night we went to a nice restaurant in Ipanema Beach and ate the most delicious sea food, a combination of shrimp, fish, lobster, and mussels in a creamy coconut sauce, showered with the famous Brazilian Caipirinha.

The next morning we woke up early and started our tour through the city.

Our first stop was at the Corcovado - Cristo Redentor, Christ The Redeemer; the day was not so beautiful, it was really cloudy, but we decided to go anyway.

When we got there we bought our tickets and up we went on a tourist bus to actually be transported to the peak of the mountain so we could be up and close to the actual site,

at the Christ.

When we arrived at the summit, it was even cloudier than at the base of the mountain, but not even the clouds were capable to outshine the beauty of the place. A statue with its opened arms, the All Omnipotent one, as if it were a mama hen gathering her chicks under her feathers protecting them from any harm, blessing everyone below and overlooking the city and the warm waters of the South Atlantic Ocean, promising to love, protect and care for us, mere mortals, to the end of the days.

Ana Carolina, Andy, Andrea, and Dayse

Andy at the base of the Corcovado, Rio de Janeiro, BZ

Ana Carolina, Corcovado, Rio de Janeiro, BZ

My Mom and Dad, Corcovado Rio de Janeiro, BZ

Andy, Corcovado, Rio de Janeiro, BZ

Next stop was at Rio de Janeiro's Botanic Garden, it

was created by Dom Joao VI, then the Regent Prince of Brazil and later on the King of Portugal. The garden officially opened in 1822, there are a few statues and fountains placed throughout the garden, including Louis Savageau's 1862 a sensual statue of the Greek sea goddess Thetis, and the wonderful "Fountain of the Muses".

The Jardim Botanico today occupies over 1/2 square mile and is enclosed by stone walls, gates, and tall iron fence. There are several fascinating and unique sections of the garden worth visiting.

No need for words anymore the pictures speak for themselves.